Damn, missed the Leicester match, lost track of time
Starting
Zabaleta, Stones, Sagna and Kolarov as "defenders", none of those 4 do a proper defensive CD job imo. Speed of Vardy, intensity of Slimani and tricks of Mahrez, even if Leicester are in poor shape doesn't say much about Pep's game plan.
'Money well spent' on Stones. Few times I watched him play, he is just another overhyped Englishman.
I caught up on some highlights of the Leicester match and must say on the goals the City defence was just atrocious. It's an interesting situation, as if I'm right this is the first time in his senior managerial career where Pep's in charge of a side that isn't the "dominant" side in a league. I'm not saying he will struggle, it was always going to take time for him to build his side, but I'm interested in seeing how he handles the challenge.
On the other side of Manchester, there's a lot of talk surrounding Mourinho's team. Some say he's the right guy to rebuild, but he needs time given what situation he took over in Manchester. Others say that he's lost some of the intensity and hunger as a manager, while others say he's been figured out (i.e. mind games, how he deals with players etc). Again, it's interesting to see what will happen, because right now I'm not sure what the exact problem is in United looking in from the outside.
I'll give credit to Conte, his record in England so far is pretty exceptional, having the (joint) best defence in the league and winning 12 out 15 is very impressive. More impressive is he seems to have clicked with some key players who were misfiring last season (Hazard, Matic and Costa to name examples). Klopp deserves similar plaudits for his work, he's putting his ideas into place at Liverpool and what's quite exciting is his approach is one that feels like fits with the traditions of Liverpool.
Must say that this year the Premiership's been pretty interesting. With the coaches involved it was always an interesting situation, but I can't say I was expecting the results we're seeing.
Chelsea look very good currently. Mentally they are above the other teams too. That is a big part of the "Conte effect" as they have already come back from a goal down to beat a few very good sides in the last few of weeks (Tottenham and City) and also find a way to win ugly games like the one against West Brom this past weekend. They don't leak goals and they score a good amount of them. Liverpool plays the best and most exciting brand of football in England imo, but Chelsea is more solid overall presently and they really look like a championship team that may not be all that exciting at times, but is solid throughout and extremely difficult to beat, especially for smaller sides.
Arsenal, even though 2nd and closest to Chelsea at the moment, I'm just always expecting them to fold and give in at any moment. They'll get into the CL, but as every year, there is no way they are winning the league.
If I had to put my money on the PL at this moment, I would say that Chelsea will win the league with Liverpool in 2nd place followed by City and Arsenal to round the top 4.
Well there certainly isn't a money problem in China, Shanghai SIPG are paying around 60million pounds (some say the 60 is euros) to buy Oscar from Chelsea in January
City's defending is hilarious to watch. Already 1-0 to Arsenal
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They pretty much destroyed Arsenal in the second half though. Completely dominated them. Arsenal went to sleep.
Indeed, since that post it was basically all Man City right through to the end whistle. I advise anyone when watching Man City play to just concentrate on Otamendi for a little bit. The guy is an absolute comic! I really don't know in which school he learned to defend because it is absolutely shocking at times.
Everybody guess who has just scored for Watford
